Scratch

Listening to these FACT mixes is like reading your way through a library - each mix is like its own unique novel, and you can't (at least I can't) listen to more than one, maybe two, in a row without having to pause and take it all in.

From Nsasi's beat-by-beat, layer-upon-layer master class in African rhythm - from traditional Kiganda percussion to queer Kampala house music and beyond - to Grouper's grand tour of traditional baroque melodies and folk songs, I've already learned quite a lot that I didn't know before.  Meanwhile, I've also worked my way through revelatory FACT mixes by Jon Hopkins (FACT Mix 388), Natasha Kmeto (FACT Mix 514), Tortoise (FACT Mix 541), Jessy Lanza (FACT Mix 543), and Lawrence English (FACT Mix 584).

I started my day this morning, as one is wont to do, over breakfast and coffee while listening to The Orb's 2007 reggae compilation, I'll Be Black.  This got me curious as to what The Orb may have contributed to the FACT Mix series, and was delighted to see they provided a collaboration with Jamaican dub mastermind Lee "Scratch" Perry (FACT Mix 341, June 2012) as a sort of "preview" mixtape for their joint LP, The Orbserver in the Star House.  

If you're not familiar with The Orb, you'd be forgiven for thinking they were a reggae band based on the paragraph above.  Actually, they're a psychedelic English ambient house producer (they've also released a collaboration with Pink Floyd's guitarist, David Gilmour) who've been putting out albums since the early 90s.  They just happen to enjoy reggae and dub as well.

For some reason, the mix itself is no longer on the FACT website, the only mix so far I've not seen posted.  The file is still on the SoundCloud site, but downloading of the file is not available.  Fortunately, though, one can still stream it or repost it.  

FACT attempts to describe this mix as a "slow-motion kayak ride through a pipe of slurry, thick, overwhelmingly delayed basslines obscuring wonky melodies – some recognisable (‘What A Wonderful World’, ‘Zombie’), others from another planet entirely. Plus, of course, you get Perry toasting on top, though around half-way through he gets bored and toddles off for a while. Would you want it any other way? We certainly wouldn’t."

Meanwhile, it's hot as hell here in Georgia. Yesterday's high temperature (95⁰) was the highest since 1958, when it was 96⁰, tying the record set in 1948. It's not even summer yet, but right now (I'm writing this around 3:30 pm) it's 97⁰ outside.  With the humidity (44%), the Heat Index makes it feel like 103⁰. The forecast is for these high temperatures to continue for at least the next 10 days and to be even hotter next week.  Weather advisories are urging us to avoid being out in the sun, to stay indoors in air-conditioned rooms if possible, to drink plenty of fluids, and to check up on relatives and neighbors.  It looks like I got my new AC installed just in time!  

Meanwhile, the tropical disturbance that might/could become Hurricane Bonnie has moved inland over Nicaragua, reducing its chances of forming into a hurricane.  If it moves back over water, it could still develop into a hurricane or tropical storm, but for now it appears to be content to just dropping heavy rain over Nicaragua.

So - ecce homo - here I am staying indoors like it's the 2020 covid season all over again, trying to avoid the punishing heat outside and tripping out to the crazy dub sounds of Lee "Scratch" Perry and The Orb.  Episode 3 of The Treason Hearings airs tomorrow morning, and that evening we have Game 6 of the Celtics-Warriors NBA Finals.  So until then, stay cool.